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June 09, 2006 at 12:19 PM
The New York State Department of Health has ordered UnitedHealthcare to stop selling new managed care policies in the state through 2 of its smaller units.
UnitedHealthcare, the main health insurance unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc., Minnetonka, Minn., has failed to correct violations of state regulations governing financial reporting and wrongly denied payment of medical bills submitted by providers, the state health department charges.
UnitedHealth, the parent of Oxford Health Plans and AmeriChoice as well as of UnitedHealthcare, has responded with a statement emphasizing the narrow scope of the state health department order.
“The enrollment ban by the New York State Department of Health only applies to a small portion of the UnitedHealthcare HMO Medicaid product and to United Healthcare commercial HMO products with about 3,000 members,” UnitedHealth says in the statement.
“UnitedHealthcare and its subsidiary, Oxford Health Plans, continue to enroll membership in New York state products written on their insurance licenses, in addition to enrolling members on the Oxford Health Plans health maintenance organization license and AmeriChoice’s HMO license,” UnitedHealth says.
UnitedHealth has been shifting most of its New York members into plans that operate under the Oxford brand name, a UnitedHealth spokeswoman says.
In a letter to Michael Turpin, chief executive of UnitedHealthcare Northeast, Kathleen Shure, director of the health department’s Office of Managed Care, said the department was taking action because UnitedHealthcare had not adequately resolved alleged deficiencies with the products affected by the order.
